HTTYD High
by Astrid Goes For A Spin
Summary: Thaddeus Vance Haddock taught math class. Revered, he had a way with the kids, a sarcastic smile, an endless well of patience, and a prosthetic leg with a shadowy backstory. Oh, and there's the girl who draws him during class...him at fourteen. ModernAU.


**Modern AU How To Train Your Dragon was on my mind a few months ago, when a student in my LA class asked the teacher if he could use his name in a writing project for class.**

**"No."**

**(hehehe) He told me I could. =) **

**And this is what my brain comes up with at night when I'm out to dinner with my family - I've given them a mission that they're likely never to complete, and...well, just read.**

**Be warned: I am putting this in as COMPLETE. I will change this and write...a few more chapters, maybe, if I GET REVIEWS. I am not yelling at you, just saying that if no one wants me to write this, I WILL NOT WRITE MORE. **

_**EDIT: It's been over a year since I've put this up, and although you have all risen to the challenge admirably (twenty-six reviews, 8/24/2013) I have no intention of continuing this fic. I'll spoil and say that Carina was based off an earlier version of Astrid that she's been having soothsaying visions about Hiccup's younger years, but I truly had no plans beyond that.**_

_**Sorry to disappoint, but I hope you enjoy this unfounded story anyway.**_

**And...read on. (I notice I put that on almost everything).**

* * *

><p>Thaddeus Vance Haddock was a good math teacher, much better than anyone would have expected. He taught higher level math for the most advanced of high schoolers. Revered, he had a firm way with the students, a sarcastic smile, and a prosthetic leg.<p>

He was the favorite teacher, and at Berk High there were a few others that joined in his fame: Theodore and Rebekah Thorston (twins, not a couple) with long blonde hair and a longer history of squabbling – so she was the girls' councilor, he the boys'. Fredrich Ingreman, the hulk with an incredible memory, the history teacher. Scott Jorgensen, a large man with larger muscles, who was a slightly brutal gym teacher but an excellent coach.

Lastly there was Astrid Hofferson, queen of all things literary, plus cheer captain, cross country coach and swim coordinator, easily the busiest of them all, besides Thaddeus Haddock. Some of the hottest gossip was the well known fact that Astrid and Thaddeus were, themselves high-school sweethearts.

Under the regime of the stately superintendent Stoick Haddock, Hiccup's father, and their sturdy principal Gerard Belk (who doubled as Science teacher), they made a formidable school where students had strong bodies and stronger minds, where students learn well and remember those who taught them.

You may know these people with other names, in another time, at another place. Shieldmaiden Astrid, bully Snotlout, statistic Fishlegs, the perpetually argumentative twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Chief Stoick the Vast, blacksmith Gobber the Belch, and the dragon hero of Berk, Hiccup.

Hiccup didn't walk to school, contrary to popular belief. Instead, he clipped himself to his dragon Toothless and was a block away in minutes, which he took in his mismatched stride easily.

The students didn't know who he was. Thaddeus wasn't his real name, but he wouldn't be respected as 'Hiccup'. The only reason they were there at all was because still, so far into the future, dragons were mistreated, and the only person that could stop it was Hiccup. And his backup.

The reason he couldn't show up on Toothless was because it would cause a panic – the way to teach them about dragons was slowly and gently, not by landing violently in the parking lot with the most reclusive, amazing dragon no one's ever seen, even a thousand or more years later.

Hiccup was well on the way, but today, a few months into the first school year he had a particular mission. It was one Freshman who never spoke in class and seemed very indifferent. To all the others he was practically a legend, but to this girl it was another hour of her life she lost every day. It was her that could ruin all his plans, if she was so contrary.

Her name itself was a challenge: Carina Stone. He'd never known something more unusual, despite the names his own friends possessed. After all, Hiccup, Snotlout and Fishlegs weren't too normal.

Her parents hadn't come with her when she went to orientation. Instead, Hiccup had welcomed her as she climbed out of a Honda Civic with a backpack full of school supplies, a shining silver lock gleaming on her finger. She'd said hello quietly, then bypassed him, found her locker (25) organized her binders and notebooks in record time, and went to her classes in sequence, reaching his classroom last of all, late afternoon, then left, walking down the street.

His room was his favorite one in the school. It was smaller than most of them, with no SmartBoard, only two blackboards, and a lot of billboards with schematics pinned onto them. Schematics they would eventually understand if they took his classes. One was for the Mangler, overshadowed and underneath others, but none were for Toothless' tail. There wasn't a need to bring that up yet.

There were a few wooden tables that the students shared, and Carina sat in the very front where no one else did. She sat under his nose and drew during class.

The first few times he hadn't said anything, because every assignment that had been returned was top marks. Of the few tests, she was among the best, scoring over a hundred on each. Then he'd come to recognize things about her.

It was only a few minutes into class that she would begin to draw: she would test the waters first, then take out a worn sketchbook and her hand would move over the paper, her blue eyes narrowed in intense concentration as lines appeared.

He was constantly reminded of Astrid, with her clear eyes and straight blonde hair, critically serious expression. It was hard to be stern with her, so he didn't often. She seemed never to pay attention in class, but was always the best. It was odd.

He was vaguely reminded of himself: always scribbling away, no one realizing his true potential.

Today he paid special attention to her: the cubic equations he easily explained.

She was frowning a little at the beginning of class, her math binder open on the table before her, the page of notes untouched. There was at least two composition books' worth of paper in the binder, but still, nothing was bent or crumpled, as though it had never been used before.

Carina looked around a little, and once a conversation started up she whipped out that grey-blue notebook and angled it against the desk so he couldn't see her drawing. She was concentrating, he could tell.

He didn't want to draw attention to her in class, so instead he paced (something he _never_ did, and had hardly ever done before he even lost his leg) up and down the aisle.

Hiccup was shocked with what he saw in her notebook.

It was him.

Not him now, at nineteen, with a classroom and attentive students, but him _then_, when he was as young as her. It seemed impossible that she could have gleaned all that from his face now.

The lines were drawn carefully in lead, sweeping down his cheeks and jaw, and as perfect as they seemed, Carina's pencil flew over the paper with astonishing speed, seemingly careless.

He realized he had stopped walking, but the class was too busy talking to say anything. As he watched, thin pieces of his hair fell over his forehead, his sketchpad self focusing fiercely. She dropped the pencil and seemed to have a sudden idea, and whipped out something he couldn't see from the back of the classroom.

It was a green colored pencil. It stuck up out of her clenched left hand as she moved it in gentle circles. Then she put it down and surveyed her work.

It _was _him. It was a mirror-perfect image of himself when he was a 'Freshman.' These kids would never know – except her, maybe – that he had never gone to High School, that in 'his day' education consisted of beating up dragons.

Well, wasn't that what he was here for? Hiccup completely lost his thoughts as he stared into the sketchpad.

This girl needed watching.

This girl had to have been touched by the gods.

Somehow, she had information on him.

She might even know his secrets.


End file.
